Photographer:
Gemma Ring

Pig iron that built a nation

"It's very hard for most people to see the significance of rusty metal."

Whenever he is venturing out around the Lithgow area, historian Ian Rufus keeps an eye out for these relics of its industrial past.

"When the blast furnace was demolished, the left over items including fill, slag and rubbish were often used as road fill or to stabilise the banks of Farmers Creek that flows through the valley.

"In the last 20 years or so there has been a fair bit of development in Lithgow, which I've been involved in, and I've seen these items in the disturbed areas. I've realised their significance and salvaged them," says Ian.

Ian strains as he adjusts the heavy pieces of metal on the table. It's known as 'pig iron'. The larger piece roughly weighs 50 kilograms and the smaller pieces branching off it weigh about 15 kilograms. The large piece requires a two-man lift.

"From something that was produced by the millions, I don't know anybody else who has pigs of iron because that was something that you took to the scrap metal man and got a few quid from," he says.

Heavy metal history

A collection of Ian's scrap iron findings is on display at the nearby State Mine Museum. He preserves it to educate future generations about the significance the metal played in the development of Australia.

"Lithgow is the crucible of Australian industrial history. We had the first commercially successful iron ore smelter - the first decent furnace - built in 1907 until BHP built one at Port Kembla in 1915.

"At the time Lithgow produced half of all the iron used in Australia. If you look around Sydney and all the urban development that took place from 1900 onwards up till the 1920s, and think about how much iron that would have taken, it gives you an indication of how much was produced at Lithgow."

"The Lithgow Blast Furnace closed in 1928 and the rolling mills and steel furnaces were then used to melt down the scrap metal from the furnace itself, then shipped to the new site in Port Kembla in Wollongong. The company that operated the furnace was then known as Australian Iron and Steel which then amalgamated with BHP (The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited)."

Making the bacon

The iron 'pigs' were formed from the pouring of the molten iron into a bed sand casting - a mould shape that resembled an oversized hair comb with channels running through its spine and teeth.

The main channel that the molten iron came down was called a 'sow'. The smaller pieces of iron that branched off the main channel were called the 'pigs', hence the name 'pig iron'.

Men would go along with crow bars, drive them into the holes of the chilled iron, and snapped off each section. The pieces were made as blocks because it was easier to pick up.

They were then sold by the unit to foundries, blacksmiths, basically anyone who needed raw iron to work with. They would re-melt it and cast it into innumerable items, most often for manufacturing and infrastructure purposes.

Significance over looks

Although the metal is unremarkable in appearance, Ian is elated whenever he discovers it.

"For me to find a piece of Lithgow's industrial history is magic. These items are so rare, because they were produced right next to the biggest recycling plant in the southern hemisphere.

"Any scraps left over were usually thrown straight back into the furnaces as part of the iron production process."